Nepomuk-KDE and the quest for the semantic desktop
Embedded Knowledge
Nepomuk extends the tools of the semantic web to desktop applications and files. We look under the hood at this exciting technology and show you what Nepomuk is doing right now on the new KDE desktop.
The KDE community [1] took a big leap forward with the arrival of KDE SC 4.0 in 2008. Since then, KDE has released 10 subsequent iterations and is currently at version 4.10. The new technologies included with the KDE 4 collection have matured and stabilized in the past five years. One the most promising and least understood features of the KDE 4 series is Nepomuk: the semantic desktop [2].
Nepomuk brings the semantic web technologies pioneered by Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Consortium to the Linux desktop. According to the KDE project, "The human mind depends a lot on context and relations. Nepomuk aims to make computers work more like the human mind." In other words, Nepomuk offers a system for associating meaning and context with an object.
This exotic goal has left many users confused. Some initially thought Nepomuk was just another desktop search utility, but in fact, it is capable of much more. In this article, I take a close look at what Nepomuk is and what you can do with it.
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